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Tech To Turn On Your Weekend

When you’re enjoying a weekend getaway, there are a few apps you can’t live without. Google Maps, Yelp, Instagram -- just to name a few. Beyond those staples, the travel tech options at your disposal are boundless. Here are 11 apps and gadgets to supercharge your next trip.

1. Frontback

Take a photo with your front-facing camera to give the world a peek at your surroundings, and then take a photo of yourself. Frontback stitches the two together in a single post, which you can easily share out to the social network of your choice in addition to Frontback itself. It’s perfect for when you’re vacationing in a fantastic place and dressed to impress.

2. Storehouse

Storehouse is an intuitive and elegantly crafted app that empowers you to present your weekend vacation in the same visually stunning way that you experienced it. It’s also a rich source of other people’s travel stories, so you can find inspiration for your next weekend trip.

3. StyleSeat

You can pack your toiletry bag to brim, but you probably can’t bring your stylist or barber along for your next weekend vacation. So what do you do when you want to look your best while away from home? StyleSeat has you covered. This app and website helps you find beauty and wellness professionals wherever you are. It provides pricing, a reservation platform, customer reviews and, best of all, a gallery of customer haircut photos so you’ll know what to expect before the first snip.

4. Meetup

It’s not always easy to find like-minded people when you’re a stranger in a strange land. As its name suggests, Meetup helps you meet up with peers no matter where you are or what you’re into. Looking for a group to join on a morning run? A flock of fellow foodies? A circle of cigar connoisseurs? If it exists, Meetup can likely help you find it.

5. Tripcast

Whether you’re traveling with family or a group of friends, everyone is going to be snapping photos, and it can be a pain gathering the best ones in one place. Tripcast helps you accomplish that seemingly simple task without resorting to disorganized group text messages. It also doubles as a travel-journal app, so you can show the people you didn’t invite on your group trip exactly what they missed out on.

6. IF

Want to share your vacation photos on Instagram and store them on Dropbox simultaneously? Get a 5 a.m. alert if there’s good surfing within 100 miles of your hotel? Or automatically log your visit to the Statue of Liberty on Evernote without ever opening the Evernote app? With IF (formerly called IFTTT) you can do all of these things and more. The app lets you use and create “recipes” that connect different internet services. It may sound like a geeky tool, but IF does a good job of walking you through the steps so you can easily put the internet to work for you.

7. Findery

When you launch Findery, you have two main options: “Near” and “Far”. Either way you choose, you’ll discover worthwhile places to visit, from cafes to theaters, retail stores to restaurants, bars to music venues, in destinations around the world. The recommendations come from people who live there or travelers who have visited, and each post includes a photo of the place and tells how far away you are. It’s the perfect app for when you’re in an exciting new destination, and all you need is someone to point you in the right direction.

8. Tripod for iPhone

A handheld phone photo might suffice for your daily selfie. But when you’re trying to capture an amazing moment on an amazing trip, you can’t risk even a slight blur because you may not get a second chance. A phone tripod is your best friend in this situation. Your memory might get fuzzy – but there’s no reason your photos should.

9. Olloclip

Your smartphone’s camera may be 100 times better than what the pros carried around 20 years ago, but that’s no reason to settle. The Olloclip is a 4-in-1 lens that you can attach to your phone’s standard lens to shoot in “fisheye” mode, wide angle, 10x macro and 15x macro. It’s ideal for capturing both the big picture and minute details of a new destination.

10. Voltaic Converter Solar Backpack

When you’re out and about in a fun new city, the last thing you want to do is stop to charge your phone. The Voltaic Converter Solar Backpack gives you the extra power you need. You can plug your phone or tablet into its built-in battery for a quick charge, and the battery itself gets its energy from the sun. Of course, it’s also a functional backpack, so you’ll have plenty of room for your belongings. Now if you prefer a purse, then emPowered’s bags get the same job done with a flair for fashion. Each bag conceals a battery charger in its lining, and you can chose from various styles of bag, from a snake-skin clutch to a red leather tote.

11. Frends headphones

Technology accessories are often drab and utilitarian, favoring function over form with no sense of fashion. Frends line of high-end headphones couldn’t be more different. In fact, they look so good, you might want to keep them on your ears even when you’re not listening to music, and not just because your neighbor on the plane seems overeager to spark up conversation.

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